Draft picks are the life blood of small market teams, so it's interesting -- not necessarily foolish, just interesting -- that the Indians are pushing hard in their attempt to sign free agent Nick Swisher.

If they are successful in signing him it's going to cost the Indians their pick in the second round of next June's Amateur Draft. And that's going to be a high second round pick.

The Indians have the fifth pick in the first round of the draft. Their second round pick will be the 43rd pick overall.

Under the new basic agreement, free agents can be given by their former club a qualifying offer worth at least the average of the top 125 player salaries from 2012.

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This year that figure is $13.5 million. Eight free agents were given that qualifying offer by their former clubs: Michael Bourn, Josh Hamilton, Hiroki Kuroda, Adam LaRoche, Kyle Lohse, Rafael Soriano, B.J. Upton -- and Swisher.

All eight players declined those offers, so any teams that now sign one of them forfeit a high draft pick. Signing teams who have a top 10 pick in the draft lose a second round pick. Teams that have a pick out of the top 10 lose a first round pick.

The Indians, with the fifth overall pick, would lose their second round pick, should they sign Swisher. The teams that lose those free agents all get picks between the first and second rounds as compensation.

What's interesting from the Indians' standpoint is that in addition to Swisher, they also pursued another big ticket free agent, pitcher Edwin Jackson. The Indians lost out on Jackson, who signed a four-year $52 million deal with the Cubs.

Signing Jackson would not have cost the Indians their second round draft pick. Signing Swisher would.

The Indians have actually done better through the years with their second round picks in the draft than they have with their first round picks.

The Indians' last two second round picks were both high school right-handed pitchers, Mitch Brown (the 79th player taken overall in 2012) and Dillon Howard (67th overall in 2011).

Brown has been very good so far while Howard has been a disappointment. In eight starts in the Arizona Rookie League last season Brown was 2-0 with a 3.58 ERA, striking out 26 and walking 10 in 27 2/3 innings. Baseball America ranked him No. 5 on its list of the Indians' top 10 minor league prospects.

Howard was No.2 on that list last year, but he fell completely off it this year after a disastrous season in Arizona. Howard appeared in 12 games, 10 starts, and went 1-7 with a 7.90 ERA. Opposing batters hit .348 against him.

That's the nature of prospects, however. You hit on some, you miss on others. The good organizations hit on a higher percentage of them than the not-so-good organizations.

Prospects are also prospects. They hope, and their teams hope, that one day they will eventually become established, productive major league players. Swisher and Jackson both already are. They are also fairly expensive. Swisher figures to sign for something close to the money and years Jackson got.

That the Indians are willing now to play ball in those circles signals a welcome change in organizational philosophy. If the Indians signed Swisher and for the next four years he averaged the same 26 homers and 83 RBI he has for the last eight years, the loss of a second round pick as compensation for signing him would be quickly forgotten.

An argument could be made that the Indians had a greater need for Jackson than Swisher. The Tribe's starting rotation last year was a mess. The top two starters, Justin Masterson and Ubaldo Jimenez, combined to lose 32 games and the starters' combined ERA of 5.25 ranked 13th in the 14-team American League.

The other starting candidates all spent more time in the minor leagues than the majors -- and that includes highly-regarded Trevor Bauer, acquired from Arizona in a three-team trade earlier this month.

Jackson is the pitching equivalent of Swisher, and also like Swisher, exactly what the Indians need: a durable, productive professional.

The Indians pursued both. They missed on Jackson, but the fact that they are not only willing to spend big on Swisher, but to give up a high draft pick as well ... well, that's progress.